Method and system for managing the end to end lifecycle of the virtualization environment for an appliance

ABSTRACT

A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance includes a set of installation tools and an administration portal. A reference architecture for an appliance defines technology layers of an appliance. A partner ecosystem defines a delivery model of an appliance to a customer. A setup wizard tool is installing and configuring management software components, infrastructure software components, and application images on an appliance. An environment management module completes the installation and configuration of the management software components of a virtualization environment and provides ongoing management of the infrastructure software and management software components. An image management module stores the configuration of the application images and provides ongoing management of the application images. A catalog management module maintains a library of the application images. A user subscriptions module maintains a record of user subscriptions to the application images in the library.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/159,164, filed on May 8, 2015, the entire contents of which arehereby incorporated herein by reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to delivery of turnkey businesscomputing appliance and more particularly to a system for managing theend to end lifecycle across all of the components of the virtualizationenvironment within an appliance in an integrated fashion and a referencearchitecture that enables high IOPS performance of storage and highavailability of the virtualization environment.

2. Description of the Related Art

The traditional way the IT (Information Technology) systems areimplemented including setup of a virtualization environment requires aset of manual steps for installing and configuring each of themanagement software and infrastructure software components on the top ofa server hardware, manual effort of creating application images,provisioning users and assigning application images to users. Thesemanual steps result in significant amount of effort and any issues withany of the software components may result in months of troubleshootingleading to delays. IT systems are often implemented directly on physicalhardware with direct dependency on storage IOPS (Input Output PerSecond) performance of the physical hardware. IT systems often lack highavailability architecture to achieve the desired levels of reliability.

There has been a partial response to this problem. U.S. Pat. No.8,863,124 issued to M. Aron entitled, “ARCHITECTURE FOR MANAGING I/O ANDSTORAGE FOR A VIRTUALIZATION ENVIRONMENT,” discloses an improvedapproach to implement I/O and storage device management in avirtualization environment. According to some approaches disclosed inthat patent, a Service VM is employed to control and manage any type ofstorage device, including directly attached storage in addition tonetworked and cloud storage. The Service VM implements the StorageController logic in the user space, and can be migrated as needed fromone node to another. IP-based requests are used to send I/O request tothe Service VMs. The Service VM can directly implement storage and I/Ooptimizations within the direct data access path, without the need foradd-on products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a broad aspect, the present invention is a system for managing theend to end lifecycle of a virtualization environment. The systemincludes a set of installation tools and an administration portal. Theset of installation tools includes a setup wizard tool and aconfiguration tool. The setup wizard tool is used for installing andconfiguring management software components, infrastructure softwarecomponents, and application images on an appliance. The configurationtool provides standard variables information to the setup wizard tool.The administration portal includes an environment management module, animage management module, a catalog management module, a usersubscriptions module, and a user management module. The environmentmanagement module completes the installation and configuration of theinfrastructure software and management software components of avirtualization environment and provides ongoing management of thevirtualization environment. The image management module stores theconfiguration of the application images and provides ongoing managementof the application images. The catalog management module maintains alibrary of the application images. The user subscriptions modulemaintains a record of user subscriptions to the application images inthe library. The user management module maintains a record of users inthe system. The set of installation tools in the administration portalconvert hardware into a working business computing environment. Theadministration portal enables users to subscribe and access theapplication images.

In one preferred embodiment, the set of installation tools furtherincludes an assembler tool and a trace tool. The assembler tool reimagesa server hardware and prepares it for the setup wizard tool. That tracetool allows tracking of issues and error logs during operation of thesetup wizard tool.

In another broad aspect, the invention is embodied as a referencearchitecture for an appliance, defining technology layers of the system.The reference architecture includes a business users layer, anapplications layer, a software layer, and operating system (OS) layer,an infrastructure software layer, and a hardware layer.

The business users layer describes the use cases of different roles in asystem, using application images, wherein user onboarding tools providebusiness users information about how to use the system. The applicationslayer describes the application images used by business users andapplication images configuration information. The software layerdescribes the software products used in the system and softwareconfiguration information, wherein the software products create avirtualization environment and manage the application images that arerunning in virtual machines (VMs) created by an infrastructure softwarelayer. The OS layer describes the operating systems (OSs) used by thesystem and OS configuration information. The OS templates are managedusing an environment management module in an administration portal. Theapplication images are built using the OS templates. The infrastructuresoftware layer describes infrastructure software components used tocreate a server virtualization environment, the software componentsincluding a file server, a hypervisor, a host OS, and a software definedstorage, wherein a set of IT operations tools are used to manage theinfrastructure software components. The hardware layer describes aserver bill of material and a server configuration. A set ofinstallation tools deploy infrastructure software components on barebone hardware. The administration portal is communicating withmanagement software and infrastructure software components to automateworkflows related to management of the system end to end.

The reference architecture preferably includes a user data layer and adevices layer. The user data layer describes filer server configurationinformation. User access control to the user data is managed by theadministration portal. User data is produced as a result of businessusers working with the application images. The devices layer describesdevices compatible with the system and devices configurationinformation. The business users are using devices to access applicationimages using a remote access protocol. The integration between theinfrastructure software layer and the hardware layer is creating highavailability architecture using software defined storage and hypervisortechnology. The servers in the hardware layer are configured inalignment with the requirements for in-memory caching of the softwaredefined storage to create high IOPS performance of the storage resourcesin the system.

In another broad aspect, the invention is embodied as a partnerecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer. The partnerecosystem includes a customer, software vendors, value added resellers,original equipment manufacturers (OEM), and an appliance vendor. Thecustomer is the user of an appliance that is created out of multiplecomponents, including software products per a reference architecture.The software vendors provide the software products, as a componentwithin the appliance per the reference architecture. The value addedresellers are responsible for services of implementing and sporting theappliance per the reference architecture and using an informationtechnology service management (ITSM) framework. The OEM is responsiblefor assembly of appliance hardware per the reference architecture. Theappliance vendor is responsible for defining the reference architecture,including an administration portal, other tools and the ITSM framework.

Other objects, advantages, and novel features will become apparent fromthe following detailed description of the invention when considered inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system for managing the end to endlifecycle of a virtualization environment, of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the reference architecture for anappliance, in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the partner ecosystem for delivering anappliance to a customer, of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the integration of the administrationportal, management software, and infrastructure software, of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the integration of theinfrastructure software layer and the hardware layer of the referencearchitecture.

FIGS. 6A-F illustrate a series of appliances based on the referencearchitecture.

FIGS. 7A-B are mechanical diagrams illustrating a mini appliance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings and the characters of reference markedthereon, FIG. 1 illustrates the system for managing the end to endlifecycle of a virtualization environment within an appliance, of thepresent invention, designated generally as 10. The system 10 includes aset of user onboarding tools 12, a set of installation tools 14, anadministration portal 16, a set of user support tools 18, and a set ofIT (Information Technology) operations tools 20. As used herein the term“virtualization environment” refers to application virtualization,desktop virtualization and server virtualization technologies that allowseparation of an application, desktop operating system (OS) or server OSfrom the physical hardware. Server virtualization is enabled by ahypervisor technology when an OS image is running within a VirtualMachine (VM) created by the hypervisor. Desktop Virtualization is anextension of server virtualization, where additional software componentcalled broker is establishing a remote access protocol connectionbetween the client device and the OS running in a VM. Applicationvirtualization refers to desktop virtualization technologies enablingindividual access to applications and application streaming technologiesthat create a container with an application software and all therelevant OS components required to run this application. The term“appliance” refers to a turnkey IT system, a product resulting fromputting together all the required layers of the reference architecture,installing and configuring all the components within each layer andproviding a unified user interface to manage the IT system and consumeresources of the IT system by business users. The term “installationtools” refers to a set of computer programs that provide automation ofthe software installation and configuration from bare metal hardware toa fully working IT system. The term “administration portal” refers to aweb-application that is communicating with the management software andinfrastructure software components and automate multiple workflows. Theterm “user support tools” refers to computer programs enablingresolution of user issues. The term “IT operations tools” refers tocomputer programs enabling maintenance and troubleshooting of thesystem.

A set of user onboarding tools 12 preferably includes a self-help tool22. The self-help tool 22 allows users to access information about howthe system works.

A set of installation tools 14 includes configuration tool 24 and setupwizard tool 26.

A configuration tool 24 allows editing and storing in an XMLconfiguration file the standard variables information required by setupwizard tool 26 to install and configure the virtualization environment.This information includes but not limited to IP (Internet Protocol)addresses, time zones, computer host names, domain name, licenseinformation, communication ports and other data required to build avirtualization environment.

A setup wizard tool 26 installs and configures infrastructure software,management software and worker VMs on the system. The term “managementsoftware” refers to software products that enable server virtualization,desktop virtualization and application virtualization described in areference architecture as components within management software andinfrastructure software layers and are accessed by system administrator.The term “worker VMs” refers to VMs with server OS or desktop OS thatare used to run application images and are accessed by users.

A set of installation tools 14 preferably further includes an assemblertool 28 and trace tool 30. The assembler tool 28 installs a hypervisoron a bare metal server hardware using PXE (preboot executionenvironment) process and copies the software components to the serverhardware. The trace tool 30 provides live insight into the ongoingactivities during the setup wizard tool 26 operation and highlights anyproblems during the configuration process.

The administration portal 16 includes an environment management module32, an image management module 34, a catalog management module 36, auser subscriptions module 38, and a user management module 40.

The environment management module 32 completes the installation andconfiguration of the management software components of a desktopvirtualization environment and provides ongoing management of thevirtualization environment.

The image management module 34 defines each image as a combination ofVM, VHD and network templates and is used to configure and manage theapplication, desktop OS and server OS images.

The catalog management module 36 maintains a library of assets—a set ofready-made images based on the image management module templates. Theterm “assets” refers to application, desktop OS or server OS imagesavailable in the library.

The user subscriptions module 38 maintains a record of usersubscriptions to the assets in the library.

The user management module 40 maintains a record of users in the system.

Thus, the set of installation tools 14 and the administration portal 16convert bare bone hardware into a working virtualization environment.The administration portal 16 enables users to rapidly accessapplications as per user subscriptions.

The administration portal 16 preferably further includes a resellermanagement module 42, an organization management module 44, aprovisioning module 46, a usage module 48, a capacity management module50, a license management module 52, and a billing management module 54.The reseller management module 42 creates and manages multiple resellersper virtualization environment. The organization management module 44creates and manages multiple organizations per one reseller. Theprovisioning module 46 allocates the necessary compute resources to VMsas per user subscription information. The usage module 48 is trackingthe usage of compute resources by the users. The capacity managementmodule 50 is tracking utilization information of hardware and generatesmonthly reports. The license management module 52 is tracking softwarelicensing and application licensing utilization information andgenerates monthly reports. The billing management module 54 generatesmonthly invoicing data based on the user subscriptions and generatesmonthly reports.

The user support tools 18 preferably further includes an audit logmodule 56 and a support requests module 58. The audit log module 56 istracking information about all steps involved in user login andapplication access process. The support requests module 58 is allowingusers to submit their issues in form of service requests.

The IT operation tools 20 preferably further includes a monitoring tool60 and a troubleshooting tool 62. The monitoring tool 60 collectsinformation about hardware utilization and software performance metrics.The troubleshooting tool 62 enables engineers to quickly collect therequired system information to troubleshoot user issues.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the reference architecture of the appliance ofthe present invention is illustrated, designated generally as 70. Thereference architecture 70 includes multiple architecture layers such asbusiness users layer 72, applications layer 78, management softwarelayer 80, operating system layer 82, infrastructure software layer 84,and hardware layer 86.

The business users layer 72 is describing the use cases of users indifferent roles using the system.

The applications layer 78 is describing the applications used in thesystem and application configuration information.

The management software layer 80 describes the software products used inthe system along with their configuration information.

The operating system layer 82 describes the OSs used by the system alongwith the Oss configuration information.

The infrastructure software layer 84 describes the infrastructuresoftware components such as hypervisor, host OS, and software definedstorage.

The hardware layer 86 describes standard server hardware configurationincluding bill of material information.

The reference architecture 70 preferably further includes additionalarchitecture layers such as devices layer 74 and user data layer 76. Thedevices layer 74 describes the devices compatible with thevirtualization environment and defines a device configurationinformation. The user data layer 76 describes the configurationinformation of file servers and methods to manage file access by users.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a partner ecosystem for delivering theappliance of the present invention is illustrated, designated generallyas 88. The partner ecosystem 88 defines partner ecosystem players suchas customers 90, software vendors 96, original equipment manufacturers(OEMs) 98, value added resellers 102, and appliance vendor 104.

The customers 90 are the final receivers and users of the appliance 92.

The software vendors 96 provide the management, operating system andinfrastructure software products used within the reference architecture70 of the appliance 92.

The original equipment manufacturer 98 is responsible for assembly ofappliance hardware based on reference architecture 70.

The value added resellers 102 are responsible for services ofimplementing and supporting the appliance 92.

The appliance vendor 104 is responsible for creating the referencearchitecture 70, including an administration portal and other tools, andproviding the ITSM Framework 106 to the value added resellers 102.

The partner ecosystem 88 preferably further includes additional partnerecosystem players such as application vendors 94 and distributors 100.The application vendors 94 provide the application software used withinthe reference architecture 70. Distributors 100 are responsible forresell and delivery of the appliance hardware to the customer, resell ofsoftware licensing and application licensing.

Referring to FIG. 4 that illustrates integration between theadministration portal 16 with management software layer 80 andinfrastructure software layer 84 of the present invention, designatedgenerally as 110. The administration portal 16 includes a web server112, an application server 114 and a fabric 116. The management softwarelayer 80 includes a Citrix XenDesktop 130, an active directory 132, anda SQL 134. The infrastructure software layer 84 includes a file server144 and a hypervisor 146.

The web server 112 is providing the user interface 118 of theadministration portal 16 and is connected using web services to theservices façade 120 of the application server 114.

The platform service 122 of the application server 114 is executing theautomated workflows and is using platform core 124 to communicate toservices core 126 of the fabric 116 using pipes.

The services core 126 is using plugins 128 to communicate to componentsof the management software layer 80 and infrastructure software layer84.

The management software layer 80 preferably further includes an SMTPserver 136, a Citrix Desktop Director 138, a Microsoft Licensing Server140, and a Citrix Licensing Server 142

Referring to FIG. 5, integration between the hardware layer 86 andinfrastructure software layer 84, of the present invention, isillustrated, designated generally as 150. The hardware layer 86 includesprimary server 158 and secondary server 160. The infrastructure softwarelayer 84 is configured with a failover cluster 152 between primaryserver 158 and secondary server 160.

The failover cluster 152 is configured to manage high availability of aVM 161 provisioned on the top of a VM Disk CSV (Clustered Shared Volume)163. In the event of primary server 158 failure, the CSV transitions aVM Disk CSV 163 to a VM Disk CSV 164 (VM Disk Failover). In the event ofprimary server 158 failure the failover cluster migrates the VM 161running on the top of the VM Disk CSV 163 to a VM 162 on the top of anewly created VM Disk CSV 164 (VM Failover).

The VM Disk 163 is working off the iSCSI target provided by a softwaredefined storage 166. The software defined storage 166 is configured insynchronous disk mirroring with software defined storage 168 that isservicing the iSCSI target to the VM Disk CSV 164. In suchconfiguration, the data in the VM Disk CSV 164 is exactly the same as inthe VM Disk CSV 163 that allows VM failover without any data loss.

The primary server 158 has an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 178 used as a bootdisk. The secondary server 160 has an HDD 180 used as a boot disk.

The primary server 158 has a combination of an SSD (Solid State Drive)182, an HDD 184 and an HDD 186 configured under software defined storage166 in auto-tiering mode. The primary server 158 has a CPU 170 and a RAM(Random Access Memory) 172 that are configured based on the workload ofthe server as per reference architecture and in alignment with in memorycaching requirements of the software defined storage 166.

The secondary server 160 has a combination of an SSD (Solid State Drive)188, an HDD 190 and an HDD 192 configured under software defined storage168 in auto-tiering mode. The secondary server 160 has a CPU 174 and aRAM 176 that are configured based on the workload of the server as perreference architecture and in alignment with in memory cachingrequirements of the software defined storage 168.

Referring to FIGS. 6A-6F, a series of appliances based on referencearchitecture are illustrated. The series of appliances include miniappliance 202, small appliance tower 204, small appliance rackserver206, medium appliance 208 in two rackservers configuration, largeappliance 210 in rack configuration, and appliance cluster 212 inmultiple racks configuration.

The mini appliance 202 is designed as a demo kit and for running up to20 application virtualization users.

The small appliance tower 204 and small appliance rackserver 206 aredesigned for less than 50 user capacity.

The medium appliance 208 in two rackservers configuration is designedfor up to 500 user capacity.

The large appliance 210 in a rack configuration is designed for up to3000 user capacity.

The appliance cluster 212 in multiple racks configuration is designedfor more than 3000 user capacity.

Referring to FIGS. 7A-7B, mechanical diagrams of the mini appliance 202are illustrated. The mini appliance 202 includes an HDD 178. The miniappliance 202 includes a RAM 172.

The HDD 178 is used as a boot drive for the mini appliance.

The RAM 172 is the computer memory of a certain capacity predefined inthe reference architecture and installed on to the motherboard of themini appliance 202.

The inventions discussed herein are intended to be marketed under thetrademark Desktop365®.

Other embodiments and configurations may be devised without departingfrom the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

1. A system for managing the end to end lifecycle of a virtualizationenvironment within an appliance, comprising: a) a set of installationtools, comprising: i) a setup wizard tool for installing and configuringmanagement software components, infrastructure software components, andapplication images in a virtualization environment of an appliance; and,ii) a configuration tool providing standard variables information to thesetup wizard tool; and, b) an administration portal, comprising: i) anenvironment management module for completing the installation andconfiguration of the infrastructure software and management softwarecomponents of a virtualization environment and providing ongoingmanagement of the infrastructure software and management softwarecomponents; ii) an image management module for completing theconfiguration of the application images and providing ongoing managementof the application images; iii) a catalog management module formaintaining a library of the application images; iv) a usersubscriptions module for maintaining a record of user subscriptions tothe application images in the library; and, v) a user management modulefor maintaining a record of users in the system, wherein the set ofinstallation tools and the administration portal convert hardware into aworking appliance and wherein the administration portal enables users tosubscribe and access the application images.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein said set of installation tools further comprises: a) anassembler tool for reimaging a server hardware and preparing it for thesetup wizard tool; and, b) a trace tool allowing tracking of issues anderror logs during operation of the setup wizard tool.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein said administration portal further comprises, a) areseller management module for creating and managing multiple valueadded resellers of the appliance; b) an organization management modulefor creating and managing multiple organizations per one reseller, withone or multiple organizations per a customer; c) a billing managementmodule for generating monthly invoicing based on user subscriptions;and, d) a license management module for generating monthly softwarelicensing utilization reports; e) a capacity management module forgenerating hardware capacity utilization reports; f) a provisioningmodule for provisioning application images to users based on the usersubscriptions; and, g) a usage module for generating monthly usagereports based on the user subscriptions.
 4. The system of claim 1,further comprising a set of user onboarding tools further comprising aself-help tool for users to learn about how to use the system during auser onboarding phase of a life-cycle.
 5. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising a set of user support tools further comprising, a) an auditlog module to track user activities in the system for user supportpurposes; and, b) a support requests module for users to submit supportrequests in the system.
 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising aset of information technology (IT) operations tools further comprising,a) a monitoring tool to collect information about hardware utilizationand management software performance metrics; and, b) a troubleshootingtool for an engineer to quickly collect required information totroubleshoot user issues.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein saidadministration portal comprises: a) a web server for delivering a userinterface of the administration portal; b) an application servercomprising a services façade, a platform service, and, a platform core;and, c) a fabric for communication with the management softwarecomponents and the infrastructure software components, said fabriccomprising services core and plugins, wherein the plugins use API(Application Protocol Interface) and PowerShell commands.
 8. A referencearchitecture for an appliance, defining technology layers of anappliance, comprising: a) a business users layer for describing the usecases of different roles in a system, using application images, whereinuser onboarding tools provide business users information about how touse the system; b) an applications layer for describing the applicationimages used by business users and application images configurationinformation; c) a management software layer for describing softwareproducts used in the appliance and software configuration information,wherein the software products create a virtualization environment andmanage the application images that are running in virtual machines (VMs)created by an infrastructure software layer; d) an operating system (OS)layer for describing operating systems (OSs) and OS configurationinformation, wherein said application images are built using the OStemplates, wherein OS templates are managed using an environmentmanagement module in an administration portal; e) an infrastructuresoftware layer for describing infrastructure software components used tocreate a server virtualization environment, said software componentsincluding a file server, a hypervisor, a host OS, and a software definedstorage, wherein a set of IT operations tools are used to manage theinfrastructure software components; and, f) a hardware layer fordescribing a server hardware bill of material and a server hardwareconfiguration for a series of appliances, wherein a set of installationtools install infrastructure software components on bare bone hardware.9. The reference architecture for an appliance of claim 8, wherein saidreference architecture further comprises: a) a user data layer fordescribing file server configuration information, wherein user accesscontrol to user data is managed by the administration portal, whereinuser data is produced as a result of business users working withapplication images; and, b) a devices layer for describing devicescompatible with the system and devices configuration information,wherein the business users are using devices to access applicationimages using a remote access protocol.
 10. The reference architecture ofclaim 8, wherein said management software layer comprises: a) a CitrixXenDesktop for managing a desktop virtualization environment; b) anactive directory for storing user authentication and authorizationinformation and group policies for operating systems in the appliance;c) a SQL database for storing data of the Citrix XenDesktop and data ofthe administration portal; d) an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)server for delivering notification emails to business users; e) a CitrixDesktop Director for monitoring the desktop virtualization environment;f) a Microsoft Licensing Server for tracking Microsoft licensinginformation; and, g) a Citrix Licensing Server for tracking Citrixlicensing information.
 11. The reference architecture of claim 8,wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises: a) a file serverfor providing user data storage; and, b) a hypervisor for enablingserver virtualization of the hardware.
 12. The reference architecture ofclaim 8, wherein said infrastructure software layer comprises: a) aprimary server host OS and a secondary server host OS to run thesoftware defined storage.
 13. The reference architecture of claim 8,wherein said hardware layer comprises a primary server and a secondaryserver to provide needed computing resources to the appliance.
 14. Apartner ecosystem for delivering an appliance to a customer, comprising:a) customers being users of an appliance created out of multiplecomponents per a reference architecture; b) software vendors providingsoftware products, as a component within the appliance per the referencearchitecture; c) value added resellers responsible for services ofimplementing and supporting the appliance per the reference architectureand using an information technology service management (ITSM) frameworkto deliver their services; d) original equipment manufacturers (OEM)responsible for assembly of appliance hardware per the referencearchitecture; and, e) an appliance vendor responsible for creating thereference architecture, including an administration portal and othertools, and providing an ITSM Framework.
 15. The partner ecosystem ofclaim 14, further comprising: a) application vendors providing softwarefor application images used within the reference architecture; and, b)distributors responsible for supply chain and delivery of OEM productsto the customer, as well as reselling of software licenses andapplication licenses per reference architecture.